Escape-energy balance diagram

ID: escape-energy-balance-diagram

Use the synthetic standard gravitational parameter and launch distance . Then escape speed is . Three outward radial launches give exact comparisons: has specific orbital energy and stops outward at ; has zero specific orbital energy; has specific orbital energy and asymptotic speed . The second case has speed at . Doubling divides escape speed by , whereas doubling at fixed multiplies it by . Changing the test particle's mass changes but cancels from the escape speed.
Figure 1.
The inverse-square potential and kinetic energy budget for three radial launch speeds
. Computed curves use and . The left panel compares with constant specific orbital energies . The right panel shows kinetic energy per unit mass, divided by , equal to . Only the physically allowed outward branch is drawn for negative energy, ending at . These are synthetic predictions, not measurements. Details.

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